XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Okay, so we've seen this kind of censorship from the Harper government   
   before - against any program or body or professional group that stands   
   in the way of his agenda.  But this is a key issue for many, many   
   Canadians in the upcoming federal election.  And Harper is going to lose   
   some major support because of his abuse of our tax dollars in this   
   manner . . . .   
   ______________________________________   
   Postmedia News | February 5, 2014   
      
      
   Jason Kenney takes a jab at Oxfam charity for Israeli boycott   
   controversy involving Scarlett Johansson   
      
      
   One of Canada’s largest charities has found itself on the defensive   
   after being singled out by a federal Conservative cabinet minister over   
   its opposition to Israeli settlements.   
      
   The apparent flap between Employment Minister Jason Kenney and   
   international development group Oxfam Canada is noteworthy because the   
   Conservative government has previously cut funding to other charities   
   that spoke out against the settlements.   
      
   It also raises questions about whether the Conservative government   
   agrees with official Canadian policy, as stated on the Foreign Affairs   
   department’s website, that the settlements are illegal.   
      
   The row started after U.S. actress Scarlett Johansson quit her role as a   
   global ambassador for Oxfam after agreeing to represent Sodastream, a   
   soda company whose primary factory is located in an Israeli settlement   
   in the West Bank.   
      
   Oxfam opposes all trade with such settlements, which most countries,   
   including Canada, consider illegal under international law, and   
   Johansson’s continued presence as a representative for the charity was   
   seen as counter to its position.   
      
   In response, Kenney took a jab at Oxfam on Monday, posting to Twitter a   
   photo of a Sodastream machine he had just bought before sarcastically   
   thanking the charity “for the tip” and linking it to a controversial   
   global campaign aimed at imposing sanctions against Israel.   
      
   Such a link has come to be considered a death sentence for Canadian   
   charities who rely on federal government funding, ever since Kenney   
   linked church-based development group Kairos to the boycott, divestment   
   and sanctions campaign in late 2009.   
      
   Kairos ended up losing its federal funding despite repeated assertions   
   it does not support sanctions against Israel, only against products and   
   services linked to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.   
      
   Following Kenney’s tweet, Oxfam Canada executive director Robert Fox   
   released a statement Tuesday outlining a position similar to that of Kairos.   
      
   “Oxfam does not and has never supported a boycott of trade with Israel,”   
   Fox said.   
      
   “Oxfam opposes trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank because   
   these settlements are illegal under international law. We believe these   
   settlements exacerbate the injustice and poverty that Oxfam addresses in   
   its ongoing programs.”   
      
   Oxfam Canada, which runs foreign aid programs such as boosting   
   health-care services and women’s rights in more than a dozen countries,   
   received more than half of its $31 million budget from federal   
   government grants in 2012.   
      
   There was no immediate response from Kenney.   
      
   The Conservative government’s views on Israeli settlements in the West   
   Bank and East Jerusalem have been shrouded in mystery.   
      
   A written statement on the Foreign Affairs department website says the   
   settlements are not legal — essentially because they are being built in   
   “occupied territories” won by Israel in the 1967 war.   
      
   But Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet ministers have been   
   reluctant to publicly voice the same language when asked repeatedly   
   about it at recent news conferences in Ottawa, and when the prime   
   minister visited the Middle East last month.   
      
      
      
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        “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save   
   the environment.”    ― Ansel Adams   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)